Virtual Geekhttp://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/
an insider's perspective, technical tips n' tricks in the era of the IT Revolutionen-US2016-12-09T08:33:34-05:00

VxRack SDDC&ndash;VxRail&rsquo;s &ldquo;Big Brother&rdquo;http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2016/12/vxrack-sddcvxrails-big-brother.html
Yesterday, VxRack SDDC got a big update – like VxRail and VxRack FLEX before it, reborn on Dell EMC PowerEdge. “Big Brother” isn’t a reference to scale (VxRail can scale as big as you want, in multiple clusters) – rather...<p>Yesterday, <a href="http://pulseblog.emc.com/2016/12/07/dell-emc-vmware-join-forces-new-vxrack-sddc-rack-scale-hyper-converged-systems-now-built-poweredge/">VxRack SDDC got a big update</a> – like VxRail and VxRack FLEX before it, reborn on Dell EMC PowerEdge.</p> <p>“Big Brother” isn’t a reference to scale (VxRail can scale as big as you want, in multiple clusters) – rather more a case of a more complete SDDC stack – inclusive of networking.&#160;&#160; The domain of a single VxRack SDDC system can be 190+ nodes, spanning more than 8 cabinets, with many internal workload domains.</p> <p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b7c8ba87de970b-pi"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b7c8ba87e2970b-pi" width="600" height="281" /></a></p> <p>Our top secret plan isn’t so top secret – so I’ll lay it out here:.</p> <ol> <li>I believe that HCI (along with CI – a bigger market, but growing more slowly) is the future of the on-premises infrastructure layer.&#160;&#160;&#160; The monstrous HCI growth rate suggests this is right. </li> <li>I believe that HCI is all about software – but that the dominant consumption form is in system form (software/hardware together).&#160; Why?&#160; Simple – people want simple.&#160;&#160; You cannot have turnkey outcomes without a system approach – PERIOD.&#160;&#160; It’s no coincidence that hyper-scale players use “software defined” approaches with their own open approach to hardware… but yet maniacally design and operationalize the two layers TOGETHER as one (and have vast “hardware as a service” teams).&#160; No hyper-scale player uses HCI Appliances or Rack Scale systems – but in effect they are building their own.&#160;&#160;&#160; For anyone who isn’t an hyper-scale provider and doesn’t have a vast “hardware as service” team, HCI systems is for them. </li> <li>I believe there’s a critical idea that flows from #2 – which is that to win in HCI – while it’s all about software, ultimately to win, you need have a massive x86 server business, global supply chain, global support model, and even go so far as designing the hardware building blocks to optimize for SDS and HCI.&#160;&#160; We do, and we will be doubling down on that path. </li> <li>I believe that HCI systems come in two main system-level architectures – HCI Appliances (which are all about starting small, as simple as possible) and Rack-Scale systems.&#160;&#160; Appliances leave ToR physical networking and SDN out of scope.&#160;&#160; Rack-Scale systems have ToR physical networking and SDN at their core.&#160;&#160;&#160; BTW – the number of HCI Appliance customers are 10-100x more numerous than HCI Rack Scale… but the market for each (in dollars) is about the same. </li> <li>I believe that there are two approaches for HCI Appliances and Rack-Scale Systems:&#160; a) vertical “stackification” (where the whole stack lines up with VMware, or with Microsoft, or another stack – all the way up to the IaaS/PaaS layers); and “generalized HCI” which provide automated, pooled compute/network/storage – but you bring your own compute abstraction stacks.&#160;&#160; The models with complete vertical stack integration will ALWAYS be simpler/easier to operate and lifecycle – because they take the standardization several steps further (that fundamental trade-off of “flexibility” and “outcome” manifesting again). </li> </ol> <p>I firmly also believe in a business principle: to build kick-a$$ offers, you have to have one team, clear mission/charter, and accountable to the field/partners/customers.&#160;&#160; If you do that, and iterate fast, you get good, FAST.&#160;&#160;&#160; This is true in big companies just like it is for startups.</p> <p>The formula for the spectacular reboot of VxRail (which is now a 9-month old toddler taking over the HCIA market) is the same one we’re applying to VxRack SDDC.</p> <p>What’s that formula?&#160; SIMPLE.&#160; </p> <ul> <li>We stopped messing around, built one team – made up of Dell EMC and VMware folks working <strong><em>as one</em></strong>, we have started to apply that approach to VxRack SDDC.&#160;&#160;&#160; In fact, it’s a single team – that lives and breathes the VMware stack.&#160; </li> <li>That team is singular, and maniacal.&#160;&#160; Their mission is to make <strong><em>the best</em></strong> HCI Appliances and Rack-Scale systems for customers who are all about VMware and the VMware SDDC as their standard stack.&#160;&#160; </li> <li>They stay in lock-step with VMware SDDC and the Cloud Foundation stack – and that includes things like VMware Integrated OpenStack (aka VIO) and vSphere Integrated Containers (aka “VIC”) – which is now GA (see more here). </li> <li>We invest (massively – this is code named “Project Merrimack”, and is measured in many, many millions of dollars), set massive goals, apply the full force of the whole company, measure success/failure and then iterate like crazy. </li> </ul> <p><strong><em>I’m not a genius – this is a pretty basic formula for success :-)</em></strong></p> <p>We have other HCI Appliances and Rack-Scale systems for customers who are not about the VMware SDDC but rather want to take a “workload abstraction neutral” approach – namely Dell EMC XC built in partnership with Nutanix and VxRack FLEX.&#160;&#160; It’s “round one” in the HCI era – and it’s also early enough that HCI is not a “zero sum game”.&#160;&#160; </p> <p><em>But let there be no doubt:&#160; if you’re standardized on vSphere – VxRail and VxRack SDDC are your best bet –<strong> PERIOD.</strong></em></p> <p>And… wait for it – <strong><em>HCI is all just a side-show.</em></strong>&#160; The main event is making turnkey IaaS/PaaS/Analytics platforms possible.&#160;&#160; </p> <p>I was listening to Episode #233 of Speaking in Tech where they were talking about the VMware SDDC on AWS announcement and paraphrasing: “the existence of SDDConAWS is an indictment of on-premises IaaS”.&#160; <strong><em>They are right.</em></strong>&#160;&#160; </p> <p>On-premises clouds need to become radically simpler, easier to deploy/consume.&#160;&#160; They need to have radical simplification of the lifecycle management process.&#160;&#160; They need to scale as you need, and they need to have similar economic models as the public cloud.&#160; <strong><em>PERIOD.&#160; </em></strong>And I’m saying that as the leader of the team at Dell Technologies that has deployed more successful Enterprise Hybrid Clouds on VxBlocks on anything else.</p> <p>It’s a great start – but we must do better.</p> <p><strong><em>This is our “Apollo moon mission” for 2017.</em></strong></p> <p>We will use VxRack SDDC (and VxRail) as the basis to radically simplify the Enterprise Hybrid Cloud.&#160;&#160; It will mirror the utility economic model of SDDConAWS.&#160;&#160; </p> <p>Oh – and clearly there is another emerging “stack” that customers want the same approach.&#160;&#160; <strong><em>We have a parallel team (clearly isolated from the VxRail/VxRack SDDC team) with a similar singular purpose and mission: to build VxRack Azure Stack in a unique and differentiated way, and kick-butt there.&#160;&#160; How will we do it?&#160; Simple.&#160;&#160; One team, completely aligned with the Azure team at Microsoft.&#160;&#160; Maniacally focused.&#160; Invested.&#160; Measured.&#160; Consumption models that map to the off-premises pairing.&#160;&#160; Then we will iterate… and fast.</em></strong></p> <p>Oh – and we will make Pivotal Cloud Foundry run on each of these – on and off-premises.</p> <p>We probably have two more of these “very tightly integrated vertical stack on an engineered system” left in us and then I think we’re complete.</p> <p><u>Being transparent as always:</u> <em>it is my intent to use HCI Appliances and HCI Rack-Scale systems as the basic building block to make the dream of simple and easy hybrid cloud models, and in doing so, I think we at Dell Technologies have a chance to do something completely, totally awesome.</em></p>Chad Sakac2016-12-09T08:33:34-05:00A new taxonomy: the &ldquo;Build&rdquo; to &ldquo;Buy&rdquo; continuumhttp://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2016/11/a-new-taxonomy-the-build-to-buy-continuum.html
Human beings are pattern detectors. We seek to create order out of chaos, and our minds are always trying to create systems, rankings, lists, groupings of things that seem disconnected and random. It can go sideways – where our brains...<p>Human beings are pattern detectors.&#160;&#160; We seek to create order out of chaos, and our minds are always trying to create systems, rankings, lists, groupings of things that seem disconnected and random.</p> <p>It can go sideways – where our brains see patterns in randomness.&#160;&#160;&#160; What do you see in this picture?&#160; I see burnt toast. </p> <p><a href="https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=images&amp;cd=&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjcuJrH28vQAhWDPiYKHbKiAssQjRwIBw&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.buzzfeed.com%2Farielknutson%2Fpeople-who-found-jesus-in-their-food&amp;bvm=bv.139782543,d.amc&amp;psig=AFQjCNFZNKK-YYE6atGS4BwGHky7osKoPA&amp;ust=1480431581955355"><img alt="Image result for jesus toast original" src="https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/enhanced/webdr06/2013/3/29/13/enhanced-buzz-30592-1364579213-17.jpg" width="600" height="554" /></a></p> <p>Other people see a pattern :-)&#160; BTW – this is one of the strongest “pattern detection” algorithms in the human mind: face detection.</p> <p>I know I’ve used this analogy before, but I’ll use it one last time (then it’s retired) – its very apropos…&#160; One other form of pattern detection is the creation of the scientific taxonomy of all life on earth:</p> <p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Biological_classification_L_Pengo_vflip.svg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0px 7px 0px 0px; display: inline" alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Biological_classification_L_Pengo_vflip.svg/300px-Biological_classification_L_Pengo_vflip.svg.png" width="150" align="left" height="385" /></a></p> <p><strong><em>This created a pattern out of something amazingly variant, and at the surface, delightfully random – all the variation of life.</em></strong></p> <p>All life on earth are in three domains: Archaea, Bacteria, Eukarya (hey, that’s us!)</p> <img style="float: right; display: inline" alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/Phylogenetic_tree.svg/400px-Phylogenetic_tree.svg.png" width="221" align="right" height="149" /> <p>Then, those domains break down into Kingdoms, Phylum, Classes, Orders, Families, Genus and Species.</p> <p>If you want to follow that pattern to get to us:</p> <p>Life –&gt; Eukarya –&gt; Animalia –&gt; Chordata –&gt; Mammalia –&gt; Primates –&gt; Haplorhini –&gt; Hominidae –&gt; Homo –&gt; Homo sapiens (again, “hey, that’s us!”)</p> <p>This is human “pattern making” taken to an extreme.&#160;&#160; </p> <p>In our IT business, there’s a lot of confusing stuff out there – which is compounded by the ecosystem that always want to suggest that something is new, and totally different (versus trying hard to make it an extension of things that people already understand).</p> <p>Then you have the machinery of analysts (great pattern detectors themselves), who create systems and taxonomies of all sorts.</p> <p><img title="View source image" style="float: right; display: inline" alt="Image result for hype cycle" src="http://na2.www.gartner.com/imagesrv/newsroom/images/emerging-tech-hc.png;wa0131df2b233dcd17" align="right" /></p> <p>&#160;</p> <p>To top that off you have the natural hype-cycle which Gartner has immortalized and formalized.</p> <p>This is also a taxonomy – a system of ordering things.</p> <p>See the July 2015 example to the right…</p> <p><em>Note to self: the “obsolete before plateau” category is just a bummer – sucks to be there :-)</em></p> <p>When you take ALL OF THAT, and multiply that all by “marketing” and you get for a confusing world indeed!</p> <p>That’s why building structured ways of grouping ideas is so appealing – particularly to nerds like me :-)&#160;&#160; Groupings recognize the fact that the world is indeed complex.&#160;&#160; It doesn’t fall into the ideologue’s trap of building a system that is “black and white” or “binary” – that’s a path that appeals to people who struggle with complex systems.</p> <p>Groupings and taxonomies attempt to take complexity and narrow it down – simplify as much as possible, but no further.</p> <p>One taxonomy I did a while back that has held up over time (people still using it, and the truest measure of value in a taxonomy, people are actually adding to it) was the “4 Phylum of Storage” post here: <a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2014/01/understanding-storage-architectures.html">Understanding Storage Architectures</a>. </p> <p><strong>Today I want to put out another proposed taxonomy: <em><u>The 5 Stops on the “Build” to “Buy” Continuum.</u></em></strong></p> <p>This is a reflection of something I’ve been noodling on since the beginning of 2016 (when my perspective became very focused on the CI and HCI business, as well as working to make the on-premises hybrid cloud stacks work better), and ramped up as Dell and EMC came together and the charter of the team broadened out (and my focus zoomed out to include validated solutions and the Dell Blueprint program).&#160;&#160;&#160; </p> <p>Perspective changing is a beautiful opportunity – it forces your brain to look at the world in slightly different ways, and ask different questions.</p> <p><em><strong>We started to really noodle on this in a new way… What is the thing that “links” and “connects” things like reference architectures to CI and HCI?&#160;&#160; What is the <u>idea</u> that “connects”&#160; customer’s desires for Hybrid Cloud models to the products that compose them?&#160;&#160; How can the mental state of the customer and their preferences be captured?</strong></em>&#160;<strong><em>How is this a function of hype-cycle and maturity of markets?</em></strong></p> <p>Ok – here goes.</p> <p>I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a “Build” to “Buy” continuum across customers.&#160;&#160; This can be broken down into a taxonomy with 5 “Phylum” of how they look at their IT.&#160;&#160; It’s not a function of size or market (and even at a given customer can vary by workload/use case) – but rather how the customers see the world.</p> <p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb095850f6970d-pi"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb095850fa970d-pi" width="800" height="355" /></a></p> <p>&#160;</p> <p>At the left end of this continuum (“Build”) you have the experience of building your own car.&#160; If there was a single word to associate with this end of the spectrum it would be “<em>Flexibility</em>”.&#160;&#160; It’s the natural home of people who like to tinker, and like to build. </p> <p>At the other right end of the spectrum, you have the experience of buying a car.&#160;&#160; If there was a single word to associate with this end of the spectrum, it would be “Outcome”.&#160;&#160; It’s the natural home of people who view the whole offer as a commodity, and don’t want to tinker.&#160;&#160; In fact, it’s usually because they want to tinker <strong><em>above</em></strong> that layer of the stack – but not below it.</p> <p>I think there are 5 clear and distinct “stops” on this continuum: 1) Reference Architectures; 2) Bundles; 3) Validated Systems; 4) Engineered Systems; 5) Platforms.</p> <p><strong><em>The no-BS statement which is important to absorb is that that on this continuum, as you move from left to right, you <u>inherently</u></em> <em>trade off “Flexibility” for “Outcome” – and anyone who says otherwise is wrong, delusional, or trying to sell you something :-)</em></strong></p> <p>As the leader for Dell Technologies for this portion of the business – this point of view is now seeping into our fabric, so I feel compelled to share (ideas are best when they are put out there and percolate, share, collaborate, iterate).</p> <ol> <li><strong>Reference Architectures</strong> are one step beyond basic component level-products.&#160;&#160; There is work that is done to do basic testing and qualification.&#160; The primary purpose in life for reference architectures is to slightly de-risk multi-product deployment customers who are completely building stuff themselves.&#160;&#160; They are very flexible – as you can deviate from the reference architecture and nothing will stop you.&#160;&#160; But – the flip side of that is simple: nothing will stop you :-) </li> <li><strong>Bundles</strong> go a step further, and make the commercial acquisition easier.&#160;&#160; They simplify and standardize the procurement process.&#160;&#160; Still pretty darn flexible, but some reduced optionality. </li> <li><strong>Validated systems</strong> take bundles, and make configurability and even build processes (i.e. loading software, rack/stack) and some basic on-site automation possible.&#160;&#160; But the customer themselves remain responsible for the lifecycle (test/patch/update/support) of the components in the stack.&#160;&#160; If you take a step back, the products in the recipe are still very evident.&#160;&#160; These are only somewhat flexible, dramatically curtailed optionality. </li> <li><strong>Engineered Systems</strong> are a big step – not because of the tech in them (which are often the same as a validated system or a reference architecture), but because the ingredients in the stack become an integrated system – designed as one, engineered and manufactured as one, sustained/lifecycled as one, and supported as one.&#160;&#160; This FORCES an operational change in the customer.&#160;&#160; Sophisticated, mature VxBlock customers don’t care what is in it – only in the parameters of the overall system (which the ingredients influence, but don’t define).&#160;&#160; And while Converged Infrastructure still has the ingredients as “physically visible” (ie. you can visibly “see” the blades and storage as distinct elements), in HCI Appliances and Rack Scale Systems – you cannot decompose them at all.&#160; With HCI models the operational change is mandatory, and the lifecycle process is done via software, not services – this is a powerful forcing function.&#160; It’s also the thing that makes HCI have a huge operational impact relative to CI (which has a huge operational impact relative to “Build”).&#160;&#160; The main idea of the “Engineered Systems” category is the component-level details and lifecycle <em>and the responsibility that comes with it completely shift from the customer to the vendor.</em>&#160;&#160; Engineered Systems deliver on business outcomes (that’s what the customer is choosing), but have a trade off of almost all flexibility in the ability to vary what is in the stack.&#160;&#160; Net: Engineered Systems are available in any color you want, so long as it’s black – and if that’s your stop on the “Build” to “Buy” continuum, that’s not a bug, it’s a feature. </li> <li><strong>Platforms </strong>take that step on more step further, and go beyond the infrastructure to what more and more customers want – which is the outcome orientation, but all the way up to the IaaS/PaaS layer of the stack.&#160; I choose the word “Platform” carefully… Because like any Cloud platform, the customer hands over ANY ability to vary what is below the API/functional layer of the platform, but in exchange has very outcome-oriented acceleration of what is ABOVE that line.&#160;&#160; BTW – all Public Cloud IaaS/PaaS offers I can see are Platforms.&#160;&#160; Ditto with all SaaS offerings. </li> </ol> <p>There’s another observation – the market keeps moving from left to right (i.e. more and more growth towards the right), but the <strong><u>vast</u></strong> majority of the market today is still MOSTLY off to the left end of the spectrum (though this is slowing).&#160;&#160; Visualize a constant conveyor belt moving things from left to right, with new things always appearing on the left.&#160;&#160; How much is in the “Build” world, and how much is in the “Buy” world?&#160;&#160; Answer = interesting.&#160; Here’s our internal model:</p> <p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb095850fe970d-pi"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb09585102970d-pi" width="600" height="364" /></a></p> <p>Wow.&#160; While the buzz (and growth) is all in the “Buy” end of the spectrum of engineered systems and platforms (after all does ANYONE really think that how they build their storage/server/network and how they deploy vSphere or even the IaaS/PaaS layer is the thing that really differentiates them?)… <strong><em>the reality is that the vast majority of the customers, revenue, and workloads are still on the “Build” end of the spectrum.&#160;&#160; Huh!</em></strong></p> <p>This is yet another example of how people confuse “movement”/“momentum”/”buzz” with “size of the market”.&#160;&#160; Yes, the growth rates clearly suggest that indeed more and more customer ARE getting clear that hand-stitched and homebrewed&#160; servers/network/storage/virtualization are less valuable every day, but the chart highlights that there’s a lot of “Build” out there.&#160; Most of it isn’t even on my continuum – it’s at “stop zero” – which is total product level acquisition and integration.&#160; </p> <p><strong><em>Ergo, the insight is that serving the market is really about “Build” <u>AND</u> “Buy” – and that making this debate an <u>OR</u> proposition is a mistake.&#160; YES, we need to try to shift as many customers, as fast as possible to the right, but being pragmatic, helping them at whatever is the “rightmost” point on the continuum they can jump on – and accelerate their journey to the right.</em></strong></p> <p>There is a hazard here – from both the customer and the vendor point of view… that hazard is in not being brutally clear and consistent when setting expectations about where you are on the continuum, and what you are getting.&#160;&#160; It’s worth saying again:</p> <p><strong><em>The no-BS statement which is important to absorb is that that on this continuum, as you move from left to right, you trade off “Flexibility” for “Outcome” – and anyone who says otherwise is wrong, delusional, or trying to sell you something :-)</em></strong></p> <p>Example from the vendor point of view:&#160; when a vendor wants to focus on delivering turnkey agility for a IaaS/PaaS offering (whether it’s on or off-premises),&#160; but they don’t have the stomach to confront and challenge customers who want all sorts of optionality/flexibility… They get themselves in trouble.&#160;&#160; At Dell EMC – all our Hybrid Cloud Platforms going forward will be only available on Engineered Systems (and the direction bends towards HCI).&#160;&#160;&#160; Yes, that means you can’t “tweak this or vary that” below the platform definition – but you can’t with AWS, Azure, Salesforce.com, Workday.&#160;&#160;&#160; The delusion is that when it’s on-premises that’s somehow different.&#160;&#160; Nope – it’s the same.&#160;&#160; And when customers think that’s somehow “lock in”, they are confused about where they are on the continuum.</p> <p>Example from a customer point of view: when they think they want an outcome, but start to specify processor types, media types, get into deep philosophical arguments about VMware versus OpenStack.&#160;&#160; Those questions and debates have a place, but those debate clearly indicacte that if they matter to you – you are at the “Build” end of the spectrum, and you better make sure that your organization isn’t instead trying to “shift right”.</p> <p>I’ve been learning a lot of lessons over the last few months:</p> <ul> <li>Our happiest Engineered System customers are where we hold the line HARD on “no dissassembly rule” even when that messes with the customer’s operational model.&#160;&#160; The customers who are the least happy is where we didn’t get on the same page on the fundamental question: “are you trying to ‘Build’ or ‘Buy’”.&#160;&#160; When I visit those customers – they say “didn’t deliver the benefit”, but when I double-click, they still have server, storage, networking, virtualization teams – and their VxBlock is dissassembled or their VxRail has become servers with vSAN.&#160; If they originally thought they were getting a reference architecture or a bundle – they are happy.&#160;&#160; <em><u>But</u></em> if they thought they were getting a turnkey system with lifecycle management – OUCH, those customers are unhappy.&#160; I blame myself, my team – as much as I blame the customer.&#160; We were not clear on what they wanted and needed.&#160;&#160; That’s why I will always support our field teams in turning down a customer who doesn’t accept that with VxBlock, VxRack, and VxRail – you are adopting OUR standard, not us adapting yours. </li> <li>When we try to move things towards the right before we are ready, or the ecosystem/market is ready – it’s hard.&#160;&#160;&#160; What’s an example?&#160;&#160;&#160; An interesting one right now is the Cloud Native container/container manager/cluster/cluster manager ecosystem is moving at the speed of light, and hasn’t settled down.&#160; it will – but right now there’s too much variation, too much tinkering going on – and that’s natural.&#160;&#160; Expect a lot of stuff around reference architectures, validated systems around this ecosystem – because people want it de-risked, but it’s just too dynamic a space for standards and sufficient commonality to mature.&#160;&#160; This will emerge – maybe just not quite yet. </li> <li>We have a lot to do (and are working furiously) to make our Hybrid Cloud Platforms more turnkey, simpler, and more consumable (both operationally and economically).&#160;&#160; On a recent Speaking In Tech Podcast (always on my playlist), the discussion turned to the fact that it’s still as hard as it is to deploy – and more importantly <strong><em>sustain</em></strong> an on-premises IaaS/PaaS stack is an indictment of the industry… <strong><em>I agree.</em></strong>&#160;&#160;&#160; SDDCaaS on AWS is a big move by VMware, we must match that simplicity, and customer can count on the fact that we are cranking on it – and VxRail annd VxRack SDDC figure prominently.&#160;&#160;&#160; Don’t misunderstand – our Enterprise Hybrid Cloud stack is a very, very good stack – but it’s a “Cadillac”, we need to carefully handle a small number of very big customers, and the best of them run on VxBlock.&#160;&#160;&#160; We need to industrialize EHC and curate it, and we must make it available on HCI starting at small scales… This is true of the Enterprise Hybrid Cloud stack (which is the “most curated VMware Validated Design” you can find) but it will ultimately also true of all of our other Hybrid Cloud Stacks – inclusive of our efforts in partnership with Microsoft and Azure Stack.&#160;&#160; Stay tuned for a lot on this front throughout all of 2017 – I’m passionate on this topic and I can be a stubborn dude.&#160; It’s worth fighting to crack. </li> <li>Bundles (ScaleIO-Ready Nodes, vSAN Ready Nodes, Windows Server 2016 and Storage Spaces Direct, SAP HANA, what we do with Cloudera/Hortonworks and others in the Analytics space) are really, really important to a lot of customers – and we need to continue to execute. </li> <li>Validated Systems like what we do around Redhat, around HPC use cases, around vSphere and the Microsoft stack, around&#160; are a great way to tackle getting the flexibility of a reference architecture, but a more turnkey experience day one… but are not willing to accept the reduced optionality that comes from the engineered system approach. </li> </ul> <p>So – there you have it, a peek into some of the stuff the team in the Convverged Platforms and Solutions part of the company are working on, and our strategic PoV through the lens of a simple taxonomy:</p> <p><strong><em>The 5 stops on the “Build” to “Buy” continuum.</em></strong></p> <p>Dear reader – what say you?&#160;&#160; Am I/we off our rockers?&#160; Is this a good way to look at the world and look at the needs of our customers?&#160;&#160; Is it a useful tool to frame things?</p>Chad Sakac2016-11-28T22:18:13-05:00Vblock and VxBlock use Cisco UCS. Got it?http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2016/10/vblock-and-vxblock-use-cisco-ucs-got-it.html
Dear reader – have you ever been misquoted? Has communication in your org ever been imperfect? I’m sure you have – and it can be frustrating. There was a CRN article that went live today where it sounds like we...<p>Dear reader – have you ever been misquoted?&#160; Has communication in your org ever been imperfect?&#160;&#160; I’m sure you have – and it can be frustrating.</p> <p>There was a CRN article that went live today where it sounds like we have or will have VxBlocks that have non-UCS stuff in them.</p> <p><strong>NOPE.&#160;&#160; The buck stops with me, and it’s a FIRM NO.</strong></p> <p>Dell EMC PowerEdge is an awesome rack mount platform, and FX2 is an awesome modular platform.&#160;&#160; We are making PowerEdge a universal ingredient in our HCI portfolio, like NOW.</p> <p>When customers buy CI like Vblock and VxBlock – they are getting the cake, not the ingredients (flour, eggs, sugar).&#160;&#160; BUT – the ingredients create parameters of the system, and UCS B-Series blades make for great CI (which has an external storage array in it).&#160;&#160; We are in NO rush to lower the competitiveness of our Vblock and VxBlock cake.</p> <p>If you want to know what the difference is between a Vblock and VxBlock – it’s simple, and has NOTHING to do with the server.&#160;&#160; Vblock uses the N1Kv virtual switch (and cannot have ACI down to the VM – you can have ACI in the fabric and to the host… also no NSX), VxBlock uses the VMware distributed virtual switch (VDS), which in turn means it can have NSX and ACI from us.&#160;&#160;&#160; The Release Certification Matrix (RCM) for Vblock and VxBlock doesn’t include the Cisco AVS.&#160; If you want to know more, read <a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2016/06/clearing-the-airq-does-vce-support-nsx-a-yes.html">here</a>.</p> <p>Via services, we can convert Vblocks to VxBlocks.&#160;&#160; The vast majority of what we ship in the “Block” family right now are actually VxBlocks.</p> <p><em>Will we create bundles of Dell EMC Storage with Dell EMC PowerEdge – yes.&#160; But that’s a bundle a reference architecture, not an engineered system.&#160;&#160; No lifecycle, no sustained engineering.&#160;&#160; People that don’t understand this key difference don’t understand that CI =&gt; (is greater than) a bundle.</em></p> <p><strong><em>There is NO plan to have VxBlocks with anything other than UCS, and that’s a fact.&#160; Capiche?</em></strong></p>Chad Sakac2016-10-20T17:48:06-04:00Analytics Insight Module&ndash;what is this?http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2016/10/analytics-insight-modulewhat-is-this.html
At it’s core – a simple idea: People are spending way too much time on the analytics lifecycle versus on actionable intelligence – and the Analytics Insight Module (AIM) makes it simple. Like many of the blueprints we develop, AIM...<p>At it’s core – a simple idea:&#0160; <strong><em>People are spending way too much time on the analytics lifecycle versus on actionable intelligence – and the Analytics Insight Module (AIM) makes it simple.&#0160;&#0160; </em></strong></p>
<p>Like many of the blueprints we develop, AIM was born out of a lot of customer interaction.&#0160;&#0160;</p>
<p>What we found when we were talking to customers about their efforts at Digital Transformation was a pattern:</p>
<ul>
<li>Our customers deploying the Native Hybrid Cloud (the industries fastest, easiest way to get Pivotal Cloud Foundry on elastic, cost-effective hyper-converged infrastructure from Dell EMC) were looking for an easy way to tackle the topic of data, analytics and actionable insight at the same time that they were focused on building new Cloud Native applications.</li>
<li>There were a common set of “mega” Hadoop ecosystem players (Cloudera, HortonWorks/Pivotal/ODP) that customers tended to want to be able to mix and match, but there were a set of common challenges above and beyond the Hadoop distro and various data tools themselves:
<ul>
<li>“Data Curation” – the simple ability to search across many datasets, find patterns, quickly index, and ultimately ingest into the Data Catalog.&#0160;&#0160; We found that data scientists were spending 80% of their time just finding what data they HAVE versus getting insight from that data</li>
<li>Building a “Data Catalog” – a simple single “stop” for a broad set of data sets, data types, and data analytic toolsets – without “pulling it all into a single monster data lake” (which never works)</li>
<li>“Data Governance” – the ability to look at the lineage of data, apply strict governance (including data obfuscation) and security and access controls – amongst the customers, we found that 71% of the data scientists were using data sets which they shouldn’t have a access to, or minimally should be obfuscated.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>There was a very, VERY dynamic ecosystem (if you go to Strataconf, every year there are a ton of new players, and a few who are gone) – and customers wanted some trusted party to “pull it all together”.</li>
</ul>
<p>Our customers wanted the Analytics piece to be as turnkey as we have done for the developer with NHC.&#0160; They wanted the solution as focused on the data scientist as NHC is focused on the developer.&#0160;&#0160; They wanted the ability to immediately bind the new data to an application that can make it useful <strong><em>– thusly bringing together the cloud native application world and the cloud native data world, and making the insight actionable.</em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em><u>That’s what AIM is all about.</u></em></strong></p>
<p>In the diagram below, all the pieces that are in the “grey/black” are what’s in the AIM solution, which runs on top of the Native Hybrid Cloud.</p>
<p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb0946c10b970d-pi"><img alt="image" border="0" height="372" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b8d22d7d10970c-pi" style="background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-width: 0px;" title="image" width="800" /></a></p>
<p>Let’s look at the solution “layers” – and we’ll start at the bottom.</p>
<ol>
<li>At the infrastructure layer, the purpose is to expose a simple, easy turnkey IaaS and PaaS.&#0160;&#0160; It runs on Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (VxRail) to make starting small and scaling up easy.&#0160;&#0160; On top of the HCI, we package the Native Hybrid Cloud Foundation – which is the easiest path to a Pivotal Cloud Foundry powered PaaS.&#0160;&#0160;&#0160; In addition – there is the necessary infrastructure for a Data Lake – Dell EMC Isilon x340 nodes for (Unstructured file/HDFS) and Dell EMC ECS (Object/HDFS) – which like the compute component are scale-out architectures, so the solution can start small and scale up.&#0160;&#0160; There is the necessary ToR networking to connect the IaaS/PaaS to the Data Lake.</li>
<li>At the engineered components layer, you have several components where we have taken software with key partners to fully integrate into frictionless workflows that are key for the data scientist.&#0160;&#0160; We carefully evaluated all the players in the marketplace that were solving these problems better than anyone else.
<ol>
<li>AIM Data Curator - find, evaluating, and bringing data into Lake using:
<ol>
<li>Attivio for Search and Data discovery, sampling, and evaluation.</li>
<li>Zaloni for Data Ingestion and transformation onto the Data Lake</li>
<li>some software and workflows the team built (patent pending).</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>AIM Data Governor - policy based security and Data Lineage using:
<ol>
<li>BlueTalon for policy driven, fine grained, attribute based access control</li>
<li>Zaloni - keeps track of lineage (data source and multiple transformations) of data onto the Data Lake</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>AIM Data and Analytics Catalog – this is developed by the Dell EMC platform and solutions team, and is software which makes viewing all these data assets, analytics tools and all the associated metadata simple and easy</li>
<li>AIM Platform Manager – this is developed by the the Dell EMC platform and solutions team – and delivers a persona focused user experience for business value delivery from analytics.&#0160;&#0160; It creates a simple portal used to access to all aspects of platform - Self service Workspace (sandbox) provisioning, analytic tool wizard deployment, data set deployment and more.</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>At the open analytics layer (blue part of the diagram, and outside the scope of the solution support model), customers can bring in tools of their choice – including, but not limited to:
<ol>
<li>Choice of Hadoop distro - Hortonworks or Cloudera</li>
<li>Pivotal Big Data Suite with all it’s goodies</li>
<li>MongoDB</li>
<li>… and pretty well anything they want :-)</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
<p>The whole thing – just like the Enterprise Hybrid Cloud and the Native Hybrid Cloud generally – is engineered, sustained, and <strong><u>supported as one.</u></strong>&#0160;&#0160; Yes, that means single-call support for the whole thing noted in grey/black in the diagram.</p>
<p>Now – I suspect that this will be gobbledygook for many readers.&#0160;&#0160; BUT – for some of you that scream:</p>
<ul>
<li>“YES – I know how long it takes my team to wrangle and transform data from multiple datasets!”</li>
<li>“YES – I know that data curation and data governance are a trainwreck today!”</li>
<li>“OMG – are you telling me that at the end, I can just share the new dataset and platform and just make it a simple bind for our developers?!”</li>
</ul>
<p><strong><em>… Then you are for whom we have built AIM :-)</em></strong></p>
<p>If you aren’t sure – we have services that can help you navigate this data analytics domain.&#0160;&#0160; Just reach out to your Dell EMC team and probe.&#0160; I guarantee it will be a good learning experience!</p>
<p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b8d22d7d14970c-pi"><img alt="image" border="0" height="457" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b8d22d7d18970c-pi" style="background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-width: 0px;" title="image" width="800" /></a></p>
<p>Congrats to the Analytics Insight Module team who has been working so hard and so long – your baby is born!</p>Chad Sakac2016-10-19T11:02:00-04:00VxRail 4.0 = 250x more. 25% smaller. 200x more flash. 40% faster.http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2016/10/vxrail-40-250x-more-25-smaller-200x-more-flash-40-faster.html
I think with XtremIO and with VxRail – Dell EMC is showing how quickly we can move. In both the AFA segment and the HCI segment, we were late out of the starting blocks and startups thought maybe the giants...<p>I think with XtremIO and with VxRail – Dell EMC is showing how quickly we can move.&#0160;&#0160; In both the AFA segment and the HCI segment, we were late out of the starting blocks and startups thought maybe the giants were asleep, or not sufficiently nimble.&#0160;&#0160;&#0160;</p>
<p>XtremIO has now shipped more than $3B, and Dell EMC is overwhelmingly the AFA leader – with XtremIO joined by all-flash VMAX3 and Unity.&#0160;&#0160; Today, people are realizing how challenging it is going to be for the AFA startups.</p>
<p>What about in the Hyper-converged Infrastructure (HCI) market?&#0160;&#0160; <strong><em>We’re in an earlier chapter of the same book.</em></strong></p>
<p>The HCI market has been growing for about 5-6 years quietly. In the last 2 years has become a critical part of the Enterprise IT market with the strengthening and maturing of SDS models, and accelerated by the plummeting costs of NAND and 10GbE connectivity.</p>
<p>Hyper-convergence generally manifests in 3 models:</p>
<ol>
<li>Software only (completely “build it yourself”)</li>
<li>Software + hardware bundles (de-risked “build it yourself” approach like ScaleIO-ready nodes, or VSAN-ready nodes)</li>
<li>Turnkey HCI with full management/orchestration and lifecycle, like Dell EMC VxRail, VxRack and Dell EMC XC.</li>
</ol>
<p>We entered the HCI appliance market in force in February of 2016 with VxRail&#0160; (interesting to go back in time and read the launch post <a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2016/02/vxrail-an-incredible-product-at-an-incredible-time.html">here)</a>.&#0160;&#0160; In May, we launched our first HCI Rack scale systems (VxRack).&#0160;&#0160;</p>
<p><strong><em>Q: How is it going?&#0160; </em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>A: Our HCI business is on a FACEMELTING TEAR.&#0160;&#0160; </em></strong></p>
<p>Today, I’m going to focus on VxRail, because it touches more customers by count – but likewise, while the customer count is lower, we have VxRack customers now that have more than 500 nodes deployed – truly “Rack Scale”.</p>
<p>We launched VxRail in February (version 3.0) in February, then did a massive update in June (version 3.5 – codenamed “Ghent”) <a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2016/06/vxrail-35-aka-the-ghent-june-update-is-now-ga.html">here</a>, and today we’re doing the <strong><em>biggest update to date – VxRail version 4.0</em></strong> (codenamed “Nicias”).</p>
<p>In that short timeframe, the customer and market response has been nothing short of AMAZING.&#0160;&#0160; In August I noted that at the end of Q2, we had shipped more than 1700 nodes.&#0160;&#0160;&#0160; Today, at the launch of VxRail 4.0, we have now shipped:</p>
<ul>
<li>3800+ nodes.&#0160;&#0160; BTW – people have asked why I use “node count” as a metric vs “appliances” or customers, and that’s simple… to date – an appliance has 4 nodes, but we count nodes vs. appliances – because that is no longer true, you can start smaller, and you can increment a node at a time, and some appliances are single nodes.&#0160; Likewise, the customer:node count ratio is constantly changing.</li>
<li>60,000 CPU cores.</li>
<li>700+ TB of RAM.</li>
<li>25+ PB of storage, and the trend towards all-flash is apparent.</li>
<li>Customers in 90+ countries</li>
<li>We have many, many customers with $1M+ invested in VxRail.</li>
</ul>
<p>Pause for a second, and do some math.&#0160;&#0160; <strong><em>The VxRail business is growing at ~123% quarterly.</em></strong>&#0160;&#0160; Holy @#$%!</p>
<p>What we’re actively proving is that <strong><u>for customers who have standardized on vSphere</u></strong>, they want an HCI that simply put simply is the <strong><u>“appliance manifestation of their standard”</u></strong> – and that is VxRail and VxRack SDDC.&#0160;&#0160; They want their standard in turnkey form, they want it supported in a simple way.</p>
<p>VxRail (and it’s rack-scale sibling that incorporates the SDN and higher parts of the stack – VxRack SDDC) are designed by one team, with VMware and Dell EMC people led by a single product management team.&#0160;&#0160; I’m a big believer that you want to have simple, focused teams, with no place to hide if their offer is not a hit.&#0160;&#0160; A direct feedback loop, with quick iterations is worth more than a perfect initial idea (which is an illusion anyway :-)</p>
<p>Their mission is simple – win with the industries best unabashed vSphere-oriented HCI – enhanced with Dell EMC capabilities around the integrated hardware/software systems level design, support model, and data protection capabilities.&#0160;&#0160; <strong><em>That singular team is clear: be the best choice for whom VMware is their standard.</em></strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sidebar: While VMware is the leader in private cloud and on-premises SDDCs, the market as a whole needs CHOICE.&#0160;&#0160; If you are NOT standardized on vSphere, particularly if you don’t like VMware, VxRail and VxRack SDDC are NOT for you.&#0160;&#0160; For those customers we have the industry leading Dell EMC XC HCIA platforms, and ScaleIO-ready nodes and other VxRack HCI Rack-Scale systems.&#0160; To be clear, to be transparent - It is my intent as the leader of the combined business to have another team that works intensely with Microsoft, with the same intensity, the same focus – obviously with an internal wall that will isolate them from the VMware team.&#0160; Furthermore – we are doubling down our validated systems, reference architectures and bundles with the OpenStack and players in the container ecosystem.&#0160;&#0160; Dell Technologies must be “better together” but must also give customers choice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong><u>Today, we’re firing off the 4th booster for VxRail – release 4.0. </u></strong>&#0160;&#0160; Like with the Apollo mission Saturn rocket design – each stage increased velocity – and enabled the astronauts to reach new hights.&#0160;&#0160; The 3rd and 4th stages (command module) took Apollo astronauts to the moon and back.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=images&amp;cd=&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwilieWDhd3PAhUBTz4KHU9ICYYQjRwIBw&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fheiwaco.tripod.com%2Fmoontravel1.htm&amp;bvm=bv.135974163,d.cWw&amp;psig=AFQjCNHB6opuXep5DrhM9-6gjOdj6Ey73g&amp;ust=1476628760592558"><img alt="Image result for apollo 3rd stage" height="246" src="http://heiwaco.tripod.com/thirds.gif" width="480" /></a></p>
<p>Today, Dell EMC ships more HC revenue than ANYONE.&#0160; Just measuring VxRail and Dell EMC XC puts us close to #1.&#0160; If you include VSAN-ready nodes – we drive more hyper-converged revenue than any other part of the industry (and that’s before we get to the VxRack SDDC booster phases, and launch updates of our Microsoft-aligned offers).&#0160;&#0160; If you include VSAN software-only it’s not even close.&#0160;&#0160;</p>
<blockquote>
<p>BTW – in my internal measurements of marketshare, I don’t include VSAN or ScaleIO software only, not because they aren’t great (they are), but because they are SDS software, not hyper-converged infrastructure, which is some combination of software and hardware.&#0160;&#0160; FYI Garnter doesn’t include VSAN-ready nodes in their taxonomy, but IDC does.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong><em>That quick market leadership in HCI is all BEFORE today, BEFORE we fire off the next booster.</em></strong>&#0160;&#0160;&#0160;</p>
<p>Perhaps that a good spot to start – what <strong><em><u>isn’t</u></em></strong> changing?&#0160; What is the fundamental design center of VxRail?&#0160;&#0160; Answer:&#0160; Most efficient, highest flexibility, tightest integration of all the HCI offers for customers who have standardized on vSphere.</p>
<p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b7c8a04453970b-pi"><img alt="image" border="0" height="334" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb09436e27970d-pi" style="background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-width: 0px;" title="image" width="800" /></a></p>
<p>So if that’s what’s not changing, what’s <strong>new</strong>?&#0160;&#0160;&#0160; Well, in the same way that with the Saturn rocket each stage increased velocity, I expect VxRail 4.0 will take VxRail alone to the #1 HCIA by revenue.&#0160;&#0160; VxRail 4.0 is the biggest release ever, massively increasing the reach of the platform major new hardware and software updates.</p>
<p><strong><em>VxRail 4.0 also is a 4000W Xenon spotlight for those paying attention to the power of Dell and EMC coming together, and the central role of the Converged Platform and Solutions business.</em></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b8d22a13d4970c-pi"><img alt="image" border="0" height="338" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b7c8a044cb970b-pi" style="background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-width: 0px;" title="image" width="800" /></a></p>
<p>With the introduction of new configurations powered by Dell PowerEdge (#1 server in the marketplace as a whole!) – the breadth of use cases for VxRail just exploded.&#0160; There are literally 250x more configurations than yesterday.</p>
<p>The original “G-series” architecture (2U4N) is joined by E-series (entry 1U1N), V-series (VDI focused 2U1N), P-series (Performance optimized 2U1N), and S-Series (storage dense 2U1N).</p>
<p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb09436e2b970d-pi"><img alt="image" border="0" height="311" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b7c8a04525970b-pi" style="background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-width: 0px;" title="image" width="800" /></a></p>
<p>Each of these new series also supports configure to order, which is HUGE.&#0160;&#0160; Customers can tune their CPU (latest generation Intel Broadwell), RAM, Storage, and GPUs – but maintain the simplicity of appliance ordering, support, and lifecycle sustainability.</p>
<p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b7c8a045a9970b-pi"><img alt="image" border="0" height="329" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb09436e33970d-pi" style="background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-width: 0px;" title="image" width="800" /></a></p>
<p>This captures an important strategic point – one that I didn’t fully internalize until we were 3 months into the VxRail business mid-summer.&#0160;&#0160;</p>
<p>While HCI (both appliance and rack-scale system) functionality/personality is all about the software, the completeness, the economics, and frankly the <strong><em>competitiveness</em></strong> of the system-level offer <strong><em>is highly dependent on the industry-standard hardware.</em></strong></p>
<p>Personally, I think that anyone that pins their HCI aspirations on “hardware secret sauce” is off target.&#0160;&#0160; Yes, you can (and should) innovate in the hardware, but if you “pin” your software to that, it may be acceptable (still not fundamentally right) in CI, it’s <strong><em>absolutely not</em></strong> the right strategy in HCI.</p>
<p>But… it’s also the reason something I believe is fundamentally true (but isn’t immediately obvious): in <strong><em>the long game, to win in HCI, beyond having great software, you need to have an incredible x86 server supply chain for your offer to be complete.</em></strong>&#0160; It’s why (mark my words) – the inevitable HCI startup armageddon&#0160; will have few players standing, and most dead or gobbled up.&#0160;&#0160;</p>
<p>It’s a non-trivial thing to be able to do configure to order.&#0160; It’s a non-trivial thing to have factories around the globe to cut down on time and inventory.&#0160;&#0160; It’s a non-trivial thing to be able to support a customer when a part fails on an appliance in Timbuktu, on a oil derrick or in a remote factory.&#0160;&#0160; You can get away without those things when you’re at 100 customers, not when you are at 1000+.&#0160;&#0160; No one does this better than Dell EMC.<a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b8d22a13da970c-pi"><img alt="image" border="0" height="168" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb09436e39970d-pi" style="background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-width: 0px;" title="image" width="800" /></a></p>
<p>Of particular interest is the new E-series (using the Dell EMC PowerEdge R630) which lowers the entry price point from $60K list to $45K list.&#0160;&#0160; When we looked at the lessons from failed past efforts in years gone by, a bit part of nailing the HCI market was an acknowledgement and embrace of the fact that there is a high Price Elasticity of Demand (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_elasticity_of_demand">PED – look it up</a>).&#0160; The software update of VxRail 4.0 also supports 3 node configurations, which also lowers the point of entry.&#0160;&#0160; As we do the next update with VSAN 6.5, customers can expect us to take this minimum down to 2 node configurations using cross-connect and eliminating the need for a switch (and thereby supporting sub $30K variations).&#0160;&#0160;</p>
<p>The E-series opens up new markets, new use cases – which is good for customers.&#0160;&#0160; From a competitive standpoint, with VxRail 3.0 and 3.5, we guided people away from the smallest use cases (where we would be scaled and priced out of the market) – VxRail 4.0 and E-series appliances will make life challenging for the HCI startups who focused on the lower-part of the market, and then tried to use that foothold to scale up<a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb09436e40970d-pi">.</a></p>
<p><img alt="image" border="0" height="191" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b8d22a13f5970c-pi" style="background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-width: 0px;" title="image" width="800" /></p>
<p>I also know of many customers who have been waiting for the P-Series (Performace) and the V-Series (VDI) which use the PowerEdge R730 platform.&#0160;&#0160; The P-Series can have up to 44 CPU cores, and 1.5TB of RAM in a node, which is a truckload.&#0160; The V-Series fills a critical gap in End-User-Computing use cases, which is GPU support.&#0160;&#0160; There’s support for single or dual GPUs from NVIDIA (Telsa M60) or AMD (FirePro)</p>
<p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b8d22a13f9970c-pi"><img alt="image" border="0" height="187" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb09436e47970d-pi" style="background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-width: 0px;" title="image" width="800" /></a></p>
<p>And for workloads whose storage capacity scales faster than CPU or Memory (think of running Cloudera or Hortonworks using the vSphere Big Data Extensions) the S-Series appliances are designed for DENSE storage (and they use the PowerEdge R730xd platform).</p>
<p>With this broad, configurable family of VxRail appliances – the rules of what you can vary and what you can’t has to thread the needle of “Balance” and “Flexibility”.&#0160;&#0160; The original rule (all nodes need to be all-flash or hybrid, no mixing of the two types) has broadened out.&#0160;&#0160; I’m very happy with the results – I think they thread the needle:</p>
<p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b7c8a04747970b-pi"><img alt="image" border="0" height="367" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b8d22a13fd970c-pi" style="background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-width: 0px;" title="image" width="800" /></a></p>
<p>&#0160;</p>
<p>There’s also big updates to the VxRail Management software layer.&#0160;&#0160; The first part is to continue down the path where we teased apart vCenter and VxRail cluster management (not day to day operation – which is all through vCenter).&#0160; Some customers love the ease of automatically setting up vCenter (which we still can do), but you can imagine that if you have 300 remote sites, you don’t want 300 vCenter instances :-)</p>
<p>The second part is our relentless march to complete user self-service and “ease of” which takes a huge step forward in VxRail 4.0.&#0160;&#0160; <strong><em>Customers are able to completely navigate the 3.5 to 4.0 update by themselves</em></strong>.</p>
<p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b7c8a0479e970b-pi"><img alt="image" border="0" height="317" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b7c8a047ac970b-pi" style="background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-width: 0px;" title="image" width="800" /></a></p>
<p>The small “asterix” at bottom is for customers using vSphere standard edition – where we will hold their hand a bit (the lack of a distributed virtual switch is the basis of this).&#0160;&#0160; We’re still holding customers hands on initial installs to make sure the learning is getting right back to the product team.&#0160; There are still a couple network pre-reqs we find sometimes customers stumble over – but getting VxRail up and running is quick and easy.&#0160;&#0160; I expect (and am pushing the product team) to eliminate ANY services requirement with VxRail.</p>
<p>There’s one important update which isn’t about hardware, or software.&#0160;&#0160; <strong><em>VxRail is the first product which doesn’t just “use the combined portfolio”, but actually uses the <u>combined operational structure</u> of the merged Dell EMC</em></strong>.&#0160;&#0160;</p>
<p>VxRail software is loaded in the combined supply chain.&#0160;&#0160; Configure to order is possible because of this.&#0160;&#0160; The ability to do field mech replacement on parts (vs. appliances and whole nodes) is possible because of this.&#0160;&#0160; That operational stuff MATTERS to customers.</p>
<p>Anyone who has been through a large-scale merger knows the inherent challenges of different processes, different IT systems, different supply chains and support processes.&#0160;&#0160; The new PowerEdge nodes are quotable by Dell and by EMC (even before we integrate the salesforce) – which means we’ve made big strides on integrating our operational systems.&#0160;&#0160; It is a super-human feat that we’re this integrated so quickly.&#0160;</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong><em>BTW – I cannot thank the teams working on this (“Project Augusta”) enough.&#0160; It has NOT been easy, and don’t hold it against VxRail for being the “pipe-cleaner” (aka the first thing to go through this degree of operational integration)… but it’s hugely important for our customers.&#0160;&#0160; </em></strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Customers and partners – this operational aspect, means that the G-Series appliances are available globally right away, but the E-Series, P-series, V-Series, S-Series will have a phased rollout, with the bulk of the world covered in Q4, and some RoW locations will come in 2017.&#0160;&#0160; All the VxRail appliances will be quotable by Nov 12th.&#0160;&#0160; The team is working overtime (again, THANK YOU) to quickly cover the globe.</p>
<p>&#0160;</p>
<p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb09436e4e970d-pi"><img alt="image" border="0" height="391" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb09436e52970d-pi" style="background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-width: 0px;" title="image" width="800" /></a></p>
<p>One other note for partners – to be able to provide VxRail to your customers – you need to be an EMC partner.&#0160;&#0160; The Dell and EMC partner programs are expected to become integrated in early 2017 – but until then, you need to be an EMC partner.</p>
<p><strong>To the VxRail team of Dell EMC and VMware employees – THANK YOU.&#0160;&#0160; To our customers and partners – THANK YOU.&#0160;&#0160; To our competitors – WATCH OUT, and DON’T GET COMPLACENT :-)</strong>&#0160;</p>
<p>Dell Technologies is still just a baby, it has been less than 2 months since the merger completed – but this VxRail release shows the beginning of what we will do together.&#0160; It also highlights just how fast we’re moving, how hard we are pushing.&#0160;&#0160; I know that to many of the employees, our heads are spinning – but the faster we move, the faster we win.</p>
<p>Likewise, as a product VxRail is a toddler – only an 8-month old.&#0160;&#0160; But it’s growing fast, and is the smartest, most athletic 8-month old I’ve ever seen :-)&#0160;&#0160; And, we have the next wave of innovation in VxRail and VxRack SDDC ready in another couple of quarters.&#0160;&#0160; That said – we’re an 8th month old which is already kicking butt :-)</p>
<p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b8d22a1404970c-pi"><img alt="image" border="0" height="689" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b8d22a1409970c-pi" style="background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-width: 0px;" title="image" width="800" /></a></p>Chad Sakac2016-10-19T11:01:00-04:00Another year, another #1! Thank you customers!http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2016/10/another-year-another-1-thank-you-customers.html
WAHOO! Gartner published their “Integrated Infrastructure” MQ – and here are the results (click on the below for the full reprint) Hot on the heels of the formation of Dell Technologies, and a strong Q3 (particularly with respect to VxRail...<p><strong>WAHOO!&#0160; Gartner published their “Integrated Infrastructure” MQ – and here are the results (click on the below for the full reprint)</strong></p> <p><a href="https://www.gartner.com/doc/reprints?id=1-3E3UTVI&amp;ct=160804&amp;st=sb"><img alt="image" border="0" height="691" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb09421568970d-pi" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="700" /></a></p> <p>&#0160;</p> <p>Hot on the heels of the formation of Dell Technologies, and a strong Q3 (particularly with respect to VxRail and new VxBlock customer acquisition) - I’m PUMPED to share with you that for the third consecutive year the Converged Platforms and Solutions Division of Dell EMC has been recognized as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Integrated Systems.&#0160;&#0160;&#0160; </p> <p>Now - I don’t think that customers should make their decisions purely on the Gartner MQ, or any analyst for that matter.&#0160; They shouldn’t make their decisions based on what I say – or anyone with a given bias (conscious or unconscious) says.&#0160;&#0160; Also – every customer is different – the right answer for one is different than another.&#0160;&#0160; </p> <p>That said – Gartner, like all great analysts sees a lot, gets a ton of inbound, has time to investigate, and dive deep – so it’s a data point.</p> <p>My friend and colleague (and our Office of the CTO leader for the CPSD team) Trey Layton’s also wrote a fantastic <a href="http://pulseblog.emc.com/2016/10/11/dell-emc-integrated-systems-recognized-market-leader-gartner-mq-third-year-row/">blog</a> about the news and the industry perspective on this achievement, but I wanted to share mine also.</p> <p>Here’s what I think is interesting here:</p> <ol> <li>We were selected based on the <strong><em>combination of “completeness of vision” and “ability to execute”</em></strong> scores.&#0160;&#0160; This matters to me, and matters to customers.&#0160;&#0160; Killer execution with crap tech, well, it’s still crap – but well executed :-)&#0160; Conversely, amazing tech and solutions with no ability to execute, well – it’s sad and meaningless (and ends up in someone’s hands that can execute).&#0160; The report gave a shout out to integrated systems portfolio that can address the vast majority of application workloads in any given enterprise. Furthermore, Gartner says that when it comes to&#0160; Converged Systems (built on blade systems integrated with SANs) – aka the V/VxBlock technology developed by the Converged Platforms Division is “generally regarded by end users and competitors as the industry benchmark.”&#0160;&#0160; We will keep innovating in the “Block” CI space, and 2016 is the Year of All Flash (#YOAF), and we’re leaning in hard in partnership with Cisco.&#0160;&#0160;&#0160; I think it’s fair to note that we have some uncertainty to plow through as the dust settles on the Dell EMC merger – but the dust is settling, we’re down to business – and while our commitment to Cisco on UCS is solid as a rock – you’ll see our “ability to execute” on HCI with PowerEdge go through the roof.&#0160; Wait for it.</li> <li>Gartner and the market is just now starting to realize is that we’re just getting started – and we are <strong><em>VERY serious about hyper-converged infrastructure</em></strong>.&#0160; Their prediction was that by 2019, this will be a market which is 30% about HCI and SDS – versus just 5% right now.&#0160;&#0160; Recent turbo charged performances delivered by both VxRail and VxRack have catapulted us into a leadership position in the HCI market.&#0160; Just seven months after launch VxRail has already achieved sales of 3800+ Nodes — which translates to 60,000+ CPU cores, 700TB RAM and 25+ PB of storage in more than 90 countries. That is what I call a face melting achievement!&#0160;&#0160; Oh, and 3 months ago – we were at 1700+ nodes (and similar in the other dimensions).&#0160;&#0160; If I was a startup, I would call that 123% quarter over quarter growth :-)&#0160;&#0160;&#0160; Of course, we have an HCI portfolio – not just VxRail.&#0160; Beyond VxRail, VxRack systems are cooking, and for customers who want to have a HCI appliance that doesn’t design completely around a vSphere, Dell EMC XC is also cooking (roughly similar size business to VxRail).&#0160;&#0160; If you add them up – even not including VSAN-ready nodes (which I would call a bundle, not an HCI) – I **think** we’ve become the #1 HCI vendor by quarterly revenues.&#0160;&#0160; Thank you to the customers and our partners for voting with your feet, and your dollars!&#0160;&#0160; Regardless of whether my accounting is right or wrong (in the HCI market, customer counts/revenues are hard since so many of the players are not public) – we’re either #1 or within striking distance.&#0160;&#0160; Oh, and we have more up our sleeve, and the teams are working FURIOUSLY.&#0160;&#0160; At Dell EMC World in a week – we will unleash the next volley in our ongoing journey to total HCI market leadership – stay tuned, and make sure to keep reading Virtual Geek! </li> <li>We’re also <strong><em>listening to critiques – we are far from perfect</em></strong>.&#0160;&#0160; Gartner highlight strengths of others that we’ve been paying close attention to – areas where frankly we could do better.&#0160;&#0160; The most elite athletes are always looking towards how to get incrementally better – and unafraid to say “yup, they do that better than we do”.&#0160; As the product and engineering teams work on the next-generation Management and Orchestration stack (code-named “Symphony”) that we will use across blocks/racks/appliances – the idea of a common programmable and open “CI/HCI API” for Dell EMC could be a game-changer – particularly if we can pull this off across CI, HCI, and even into the component elements of the portfolios of servers, networks, storage – and do it in a cool way.&#0160; We <strong><em>do not believe</em></strong> that this is about creating a proprietary API that is “bound” to proprietary hardware (storage, network, or servers in rack mount, modular, blade or composable system form – hint, hint, hint) – but rather doing something that is open.&#0160; I don’t want people to get too excited, we have a ways to go, but if you find yourself in a CF Dojo in Cambridge or the Bay Area – you might find people working on something cool :-) </li> <li><strong><em>CI and HCI isn’t the answer for everyone</em></strong>.&#0160;&#0160; Unlike some of our CI/HCI competition on this Gartner Magic Quadrant (which by it’s nature builds a taxonomy and ranking criteria of a subset of the market aka “Integrated Systems”) – we don’t stop at just CI/HCI.&#0160; We offer the full continuum of blueprints to simplify our customer’s IT – from “build” (reference architectures, bundles, validated systems), to “buy” (CI/HCI) – including full hybrid Cloud Platforms (Enterprise Hybrid Cloud, the Native Hybrid Cloud, the Microsoft CPS stacks – and in the future, Microsoft’s Azure Stack).&#0160;&#0160; The Gartner team notes that as a potential weakness, which I think is interesting.&#0160;&#0160; Perhaps they don’t know that we, for example, sell as many VSAN-ready-nodes as we do VxRail appliances.&#0160;&#0160; Each of those customers using VSAN-ready nodes may be more towards the “build” end of the spectrum than those choosing VxRail or VxRack who achieve “buy” outcomes… but they are choosing Dell EMC, and even more broadly they are picking Dell Technologies, including VMware.&#0160; They are also customers that in the future may choose to move even further down the “build/buy” continuum with us into CI/HCI – and perhaps into full turnkey cloud stacks.&#0160; IMO, that’s a strength, not a weakness – but only if we continue to execute well.&#0160;&#0160;&#0160; This Gartner observation is reflected in Dell having improved its position from being in the niche quadrant to the visionary quadrant.&#0160; By adding Dell’s integrated systems to our own portfolio of advanced converged and hyper-converged solutions, we are now able to offer our customers a continuum of choices where they can either build their own outcomes - by individually sourcing compute, networking, storage and software, or buy their outcomes -&#0160; through highly engineered turnkey solutions. </li> </ol> <p>…And this is just the latest validation of what the market and customers are choosing.&#0160; Recently we were recognized as a “Strong Performer” by Forrester Research, Inc. in its August 2016 report <a href="https://reprints.forrester.com/#/assets/2/146/&#39;RES129510&#39;/reports">The Forrester Wave™: Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI),</a> Q3 2016.&#0160;&#0160; Moor Insights and Strategy issued <a href="http://www.moorinsightsstrategy.com/research-brief-dell-emc-are-positioned-to-become-a-converged-systems-powerhouse/">a report</a> that predicts Dell EMC will become a converged systems powerhouse. </p> <p>Dell EMC is leading the market share for integrated systems according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Converged Systems Tracker Q2 2016 report – and IDC does “quantitative” analysis like nobody else. </p> <p><strong><em>Wait until they see what we do, and how we end up in Q4. :-)</em></strong></p> <p>I don’t underestimate our competitors one iota.&#0160;&#0160; In fact, I treasure them.&#0160;&#0160; They innovate, fight, and we compete furiously.&#0160;&#0160; We need to continue to challenge ourselves, fight for every customer, push to delight them at every opportunity, to support customers large and small, and with all sorts of workloads – something that can never be done with a single product.&#0160;&#0160; We can never rest on laurels.&#0160;&#0160; And ultimately – what Gartner, IDC, Forester says, what I say – it matters far, far less than what YOU say in aggregate, the choices you make.</p> <p>To all the employees, to all our partners, to all our customers – <strong>THANK YOU.</strong></p>Chad Sakac2016-10-12T08:00:00-04:00EMC Storage Analytics 4.1 is out!http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2016/09/emc-storage-analytics-41-is-out.html
There are so many things going on – sometimes nuggets can be missed, golden opportunities slip through the cracks. EMC Storage Analytics (ESA) is one of those beautiful little nugget, and anyone using any Dell EMC tech with vSphere and...<p>There are so many things going on – sometimes nuggets can be missed, golden opportunities slip through the cracks.&#160; </p> <p>EMC Storage Analytics (ESA) is one of those beautiful little nugget, and anyone using any Dell EMC tech with vSphere and vRealize Ops should check it out.&#160;&#160;&#160; 4.1 was released today, and I want the world to see it.&#160;&#160; There’s also a great blog post by Drew Tonneson <a href="https://drewtonnesen.wordpress.com/2016/09/30/esa-4-1-vvols/">here</a> that has cool details, and there are demos on YouTube he’s created.</p> <p>A huge THANK YOU to the team that builds ESA with passion and love.</p> <p>ESA links VMware vRealize Operations Manager for storage with EMC Adapter. The vRealize Operations Manager displays performance and capacity metrics from storage systems with data that the adapter provides by: </p> <ul> <li>Connecting to and collecting data from storage system resources</li> <li>Converting the data into a format that vRealize Operations Manager can process</li> <li>Passing the data to the vRealize Operations Manager collector</li> </ul> <p><u><strong>What’s new:</strong></u></p> <ul> <li>Support for EMC Avamar® reports and alerts</li> <li>Support for capacity planning on EMC Isilon®, EMC ScaleIO®, EMC Unity™, and EMC Avamar</li> <li>Support for deleting non-existent resources</li> <li>Support for EMC VMAX® Virtual Volumes (VVols) resources and metrics.</li> <li>Support for EMC VMAX SRDF Metro metrics</li> <li>Support for EMC VMAX compression metrics</li> <li>Support for additional dashboards, metrics, traversal specs, views, and reports for EMC Unity VVols</li> <li>Support for internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) on EMC XtremIO® storage systems</li> <li>Support for building relationships between resources across adapter instances located on separate data nodes for EMC VNX Block and EMC XtremIO</li> </ul> <p><u><b>You can find the software and documentation here:</b> <br /></u></p> <ul> <li><a href="https://download.emc.com/downloads/DL79263_ESA_4.1.pak?source=OLS">ESA 4.1</a> - EMC <b>Storage Analytics</b> 4.1 adapter only. Please refer to the product documentation for specific compatibility and usage information.</li> <li>September 30, 2016 | Storage Analytics 4.1 | DL79263 | 84.8 MB | pak | <a href="https://support.emc.com/search/?text=Storage%20Analytics">Checksum</a></li> <li><a href="https://support.emc.com/docu79034_Storage_Analytics_4.1_Release_Notes.pdf?language=en_US"><b>Storage Analytics</b> 4.1 Release Notes</a></li> <li><a href="https://support.emc.com/docu79033_Storage_Analytics_4.1_Installation_and_User_Guide.pdf?language=en_US"><b>Storage Analytics</b> 4.1 Installation and User Guide</a></li> </ul>Chad Sakac2016-09-30T15:17:18-04:00A weird, but wonderful moment&hellip;http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2016/09/a-weird-but-wonderful-moment.html
Virtual Geek was started many moons ago – technically on June 6th, 2008, when I published the first “hello world” post, which you can find right here. Wow – that’s starting to close in on a decade, and more than...<p>Virtual Geek was started many moons ago – technically on June 6th, 2008, when I published the first “hello world” post, which you can find right <a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2008/06/introduction.html">here</a>.&#160;&#160; Wow – that’s starting to close in on a decade, and more than 890 blog posts.&#160;&#160; Phew!</p> <p>Thinking about a dialog I had with Microsoft last week (it’s <a href="https://ignite.microsoft.com/#fbid=snWFfV8Wyrk">Microsoft Ignite</a> this week!)… I just updated two small things, but they represent something important for me, and the readership (thank you readers!)</p> <ol> <li>The disclaimer no longer refers to EMC, but Dell Technologies.&#160;&#160; It’s weird, but wonderful as sigs get updated, as email addresses change.&#160; It’s the end of something that was awesome, and the beginning of something as part of Dell Technologies that can and will be so much more, and builds on an amazing legacy of so much awesome at EMC.&#160;&#160;&#160; <strong><em>But</em></strong> the <strong><u>content</u></strong> of the disclaimer hasn’t changed, and isn’t going to change.&#160;&#160; For better or for worse, Virtual Geek is my voice, my opinion.&#160;&#160; I write the posts.&#160;&#160; Inevitably I make mistakes (which I will correct, and always be thankful for corrections and feedback).&#160;&#160; When the company asks me to post something I don’t support, I won’t post it :-)</li> <li>I realized the description needed to be changed.&#160; It used to read “<em>an insider's perspective, technical&#160; tips n' tricks in the era of the VMware Revolution”</em>, and now reads <em>“an insider's perspective, technical and strategy tips n' tricks&#160; in the era of the IT Revolution”</em>.&#160;&#160; Look, I will ALWAYS love VMware, and love my VMware brothers and sisters – and part of me bleeds VMware.&#160;&#160; That said, I started to realize that my perspective is changing and shifting.&#160;&#160; In addition to doing more with VMware every day,&#160; I’m doing more with Cloud Foundry every day.&#160; I’m doing more with Microsoft Azure every day.&#160; I’m doing more with Mesos, Cloudera, Cassandra every day.&#160;&#160; The connection point in the pattern isn’t just VMware – it’s the larger thing going on: <strong><em>we are in an era of IT revolution – and I feel lucky to be an “insider” with “tips and tricks” of that IT revolution – sometimes from the technical lens, and more and more every day from the business and strategy lens.</em></strong></li> </ol> <p>A leopard can’t change it’s spots, and I’m the same dude as the person who wrote that blog 893 posts ago – a passionate nerd, a technologist, a fierce optimist.&#160;&#160; Perhaps a little wiser, certainly more mileage, and absolutely more grey hair – but the same dude.</p> <p>Thanks as always for reading, commenting, critiquing and debating – it’s been fulfilling and a learning journey for the last 8 years, and I can’t wait to see what the next 8 years bring!&#160; </p>Chad Sakac2016-09-26T17:24:08-04:00Dell EMC and Nutanix&hellip; This is awkward&hellip; or is it awesome?http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2016/09/dell-emc-and-nutanix-this-is-awkward-or-is-it-awesome.html
Yesterday, I visited Nutanix HQ in San Jose. It was definitely interesting – when I was in the rest room, when I was wandering around, many employees did a visible double-take, like I was Satan :-) This is me with...<p>Yesterday, I visited Nutanix HQ in San Jose.&#160;&#160; It was definitely interesting – when I was in the rest room, when I was wandering around, many employees did a visible double-take, like I was Satan :-)</p> <p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb09374162970d-pi"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb09374166970d-pi" width="800" height="600" /></a></p> <p>This is me with Sudeesh Nair (Nutanix Global Sales leader, and fierce believer :-) and Dheeraj Pandey (Nutanix Founder, CEO), and I.</p> <p>This picture and others with some other Nutanix people started to circulate… and people asked…</p> <p><strong><em><u>What the what what?</u></em></strong></p> <p>The answer is simple.&#160;&#160; I’m NOT going to shoot Dell XC.&#160; We will partner.&#160; A great business will continue to grow.&#160; Customers can move forward with confidence, we are NOT going to screw them.&#160;&#160; W will also DOUBLE DOWN on our portfolio – and have an opinion – if you are all about vSphere, start with VxRail and VxRack SDDC.&#160;&#160; If you want options – we have options :-)</p> <p>As of Sept 7th, when Dell Technologies was born – as the leader of the expanded Converged Platforms and Solutions Division, Dell XC (the offer built out of the Dell/Nutanix partnership) is part of our combined HCI portfolio – joining VxRail and VxRack.</p> <p>This is simple, but I always strive to do the same things publicly and privately – and think about the industry and the customer through the broader lens.&#160;&#160; We reflected on the right thing to do as Dell Technologies came together, and the answer was simple: “don’t punch your customers in the face”.&#160;&#160; <a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2016/07/media-headlines-will-emc-resell-nutanix.html">I’m consistent</a>, and we do what we say. </p> <p>There is no doubt that Nutanix is a huge part of the HCI market, and even if not the one that got the ball rolling, certainly one of the main forces.&#160; </p> <ul> <li>As is now public in their updated S1, they have roughly 3800 customers (and if you want to find out more about revenue, burn rate and more – it’s all <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1618732/000119312516707549/d937439ds1a.htm">here</a>).&#160; There are more than 1000 happy Dell XC customers.&#160; Wow, that’s a lot – and the Dell XC customers represent a huge proportion.</li> <li>For a relative comparison, suffice it to say that there are fewer VxRail customers – but closing in fast.&#160; After all, VxRail has existed since February, Nutanix has been at this for 6+ years.&#160;&#160; I suspect that VxRail will surpass the whole Nutanix by mid 2017, and sooner if you include VxRack.&#160;&#160; <em>I could be wrong, we’ll see :-)</em></li> <li>For another relative comparison, there are more than 5000 VSAN customers, and many hundreds of PB of ScaleIO deployed – for customers that have a more “DIY” approach than buying a hyper-converged appliance or rack-scale system approach.</li> </ul> <p>Now, I told Sudeesh and Dheeraj (and their teams) the same thing I’m saying now:<strong><em> stay cool, and be pragmatic</em></strong>.</p> <p>Previously Dell was a one-offer HCI player.&#160; No matter what the customer need, the answer was “Dell XC”.&#160; </p> <p><strong><em>That’s not how things are going to work going forward.&#160; I’ve said it on stage at the Think Ahead conference (with Dheeraj).&#160; I’ve said it on Virtual Geek (<a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2016/07/media-headlines-will-emc-resell-nutanix.html">here</a>).&#160;&#160; I said it to the Nutanix team in their office, and over dinner last night:</em></strong></p> <ul> <li>When a customer has standardized on vSphere, our opinion is that they are best served with VxRail and it’s bigger brother VxRack SDDC.&#160; Why?&#160; Simple: </li> <ul> <li>VxRail is the only HCI Appliance, and VxRack SDDC the only HCI Rack Scale system which are an extension of their standard – vSphere. </li> <li>VxRail is the only HCI Appliance, and VxRack SDDC the only HCI Rack Scale system that are jointly engineered with VMware.&#160; One team, one offer.&#160;&#160; Synchronous with the vSphere, VSAN, vRealize, NSX roadmap.&#160;&#160;&#160; That stack is strong, and getting stronger every day.</li> <li>VxRail is the only HCI Appliance, and VxRack SDDC the only HCI Rack Scale system that have a single support model with VMware with finger pointing an impossibility (seriously, does any customer want to get in the middle of a multi-vendor fight when they need support?) </li> <li>VxRail and VxRack SDDC will double down deep integration of the whole stack, inclusive of Horizon, vRealize, VIO, VIC.&#160;&#160; They are the ULTIMATE vertically integrated, VMware focused HCI Appliance and Rack Scale system.</li> </ul> <li>When a customer doesn’t like vSphere, who want less tight vSphere integration, or wants more choice – we bring the strongest set of choices:</li> <ul> <li>VxRack Neutrino – for customers who want a very opinionated thin and light Cloud Native optimized IaaS.&#160; Nothing lighter, nothing more open-source centric.</li> <li>VxRack FLEX – for customers who are scaling insanely big, and what an system, but one that has a lot of variation of possible workloads.&#160;&#160; By definition – this will be the least “tightly integrated”.</li> <li>Dell XC – for customers who like what Nutanix brings.&#160;&#160; Anyone who says “Nutanix sux” is clearly wrong and as high as a kite.&#160; BTW, anyone who says “VxRail sux” or “VSAN sux” or “ScaleIO sux” is equally wrong and as high as a kite.</li> </ul> </ul> <p><strong><em>And… Some customers want more of a “build it yourself” approach that starts with killer SDS stacks and hardware, but don’t have the full Management and Orchestration stack that is one of the parts that defines HCI</em></strong>.&#160;&#160; </p> <p>The new ScaleIO Ready Nodes (more on that next!) for those that want choice and VSAN Ready Nodes (for those who want strong VMware affinity) are for them.</p> <p>Dell Technologies is a portfolio company – and reflects Michael Dell’s core belief that customers want choice and options.&#160;&#160; Of course they also want opinionated answers.&#160;&#160; </p> <p><strong>We have the broadest, strongest HCI portfolio – PERIOD.&#160;&#160; If you are a customer who wants SDS and HCI – we are the best place in town.&#160; Talk to us.</strong></p> <p><strong>NOW ZOOM OUT.</strong></p> <p>The HCI market is in it’s infancy.&#160;&#160; While for a sales person or product person that focuses on ONE thing only, winning/losing is binary and they can’t see beyond the one transaction in front of them.&#160; The larger picture, the customer picture, the market picture is different.&#160;&#160;&#160; </p> <p>I guarantee that many of those that maniacally are focused on one of the above, paid only on one of the above, or flat out kool-aid drinking fanatical about one of the above – they will be <strong><em>incensed</em></strong> by this post.&#160;&#160; They are also wrong.&#160; Cute, but wrong.</p> <p>HCI is a $1.5B market right now.&#160; We have the revenue, and customer count leading portfolio with VxRail, VxRack, and Dell EMC XC.&#160;&#160; In the broad sense, Dell XC and VxRail aren’t competitors as much as “business as usual” is the competition.&#160; If I do my job right, if my team does their job right, if VMware does their job right, if Nutanix and others do their job right, that $1.5B will be measured in tens of billions in short years.&#160;&#160; </p> <p>But there is something even <strong><u>bigger</u></strong> going on.&#160;&#160; </p> <p><strong><em>I am on a mission – Dell Technologies Converged Platform Division, 4000 people strong, WE are on a mission - to make the Private Cloud part of Hybrid Cloud easier – for the customer aligned with VMware.&#160; For the customers aligned with Microsoft.&#160; For the customers who don’t want a vertically integrated stack.&#160;&#160; If we can make it as simple to deploy, lifecycle, and offer it in consumption economic models like AWS – the market is measured in hundreds of billions.</em></strong></p> <p><strong><em><u>Interesting times ahead, and Dell Technologies will lead the way!</u></em></strong>&#160;</p> <p><em>On another note – Dheeraj and I were reminiscing about when we first met.&#160; It was more than 13 years ago over lunch on Castro St. in Mountain View.&#160; That day, he came to visit the startup I was part of at the time for an interview.&#160; That startup, Allocity, EMC acquired, and started my 12 year career at a company that I love.&#160;&#160; Now I’m part of something new and awesome – Dell Technologies, and I love it already.&#160;&#160; </em></p> <p><em>Moral of the story?&#160;&#160; Be good.&#160; Be passionate,&#160; but don’t be a fanatic.&#160; Focus on the customer.&#160; Don’t bear grudges.&#160; You never know when an enemy will be a friend – so make friends, not enemies.</em></p>Chad Sakac2016-09-16T11:02:41-04:00Dell Technologies = Facemeltingly Awesome, but shall we talk frankly?http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2016/09/dell-technologies-facemeltingly-awesome-but-shall-we-talk-frankly.html
What a cool day! Dell Technologies coming together brings Dell, EMC along with our family of strategically aligned businesses VMware, Pivotal, SecureWorks into a real technology powerhouse. I’m personally pumped and excited about the opportunities that are in front of...<p>What a cool day! Dell Technologies coming together brings Dell, EMC along with our family of strategically aligned businesses VMware, Pivotal, SecureWorks into a real technology powerhouse.</p> <p><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eIDvzFDOnpo" width="560"></iframe></p> <p>I’m personally pumped and excited about the opportunities that are in front of us, and our customers have a lot to look forward to.&#0160;&#0160; </p> <p>From another perspective – the biggest tech merger and “go private” ever is something to be noted :-)&#0160;&#0160; #GoBigWinBig.</p> <p><b><i>Clearly we’re excited – but enough with the rah-rah. </i></b></p> <p>Let’s do something <strong><u>DIFFERENT</u></strong>. Let’s think about this through the hard, harsh lens of “truth” and “reality”, and <strong><u>dispense with the kool-aid.</u></strong></p> <blockquote> <p><em>Watch this – I’m going to use the “Socratic Method” (which is a form of cooperative but argumentative dialog – which helps debate, critical thinking and questioning unconscious bias or underlying assumptions)…. Play along, answer these questions!</em></p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Q:</strong> Do you think that in coming years Converged Infrastructure, in particular Hyper-Converged Infrastructure in all forms will play a more important role than it does today?</p> <p><strong>A:</strong> If you answer YES, think about how Dell Technologies will be able to innovate and compete in these domains even better than we do today:</p> <ul> <li>First – consider: leverage, scale, supply chain are critical to CI and HCI – where huge parts of the economic aspects (the differentiation or intellectual property is in the software of course) of the offer come down to hardware. Even in an HCI offer, a huge proportion of the COGS/Price is in the x86 hardware. You better be good at this if you want to win in HCI. </li> <li>Second – we’re starting from a GREAT spot. We are far and away the CI leader, and in the HCI domain, coming on strong –and I suspect that if I (and the team!) do our work right, by the end of 2016, Dell EMC will be the HCI leader by any metric – customer, nodes, appliances, revenue, you name it – and extending the air gap. Why is this important? It highlights something important – we don’t think CI/HCI is a “side show”, or a way to package what we already have – rather CI/HCI is an critical central strategic pillar, and we will invest to win. </li> <li>Third – while the hardware is a relative commodity, the software stacks are what make HCI work (and critical to CI’s future). We have a history of software innovation, and very strong alignment with the VMware, Microsoft Pivotal, OpenStack, the container ecosystem and more. Imagine all the IP in EMC, in Dell, <a href="http://emccode.github.io/">EMC{code}</a> on steroids – powering use-case focused HCI. Stay tuned for more! </li> </ul> <p><strong>Q:</strong> Do you think that while there might be growth in CI and hyper-growth in HCI for years to come, the much larger, but more traditional parts of servers/networks/storage markets that we will see pressure and in some cases decline?</p> <p><strong>A:</strong> If you answer YES, think about it further. If indeed the massive markets are under compression (from SaaS, from service providers, from public cloud IaaS), but are enormous server/network/storage markets (hundreds of billions of dollars) – business considerations are critical. Dell Technologies is a consolidator, and there is a huge opportunity to gain massive market share in massive markets with a massive (and awesome) portfolio. Even if the massive markets are under compression and in some cases shrinking, the spend isn&#39;t going away, certainly not for decades.&#0160; It&#39;s just shifting.&#0160; What&#39;s face meltingly awesome is that Dell Technologies not only can consolidate the traditional domain, we have all the pieces to lead where the spend is moving.&#0160;&#0160; A large part of this is HCI, Hybrid Cloud, Cloud Native apps, new data fabrics, and next generation software defined datacenters.&#0160; We have leading offerings in each.&#0160; This allows us to offer the right answer without hesitation. If a customer wants to move away from traditional spend to where the ball is going - that&#39;s just fine.&#0160;&#0160; If they want to consolidate their traditional infrastructure – that’s just fine.&#0160; We&#39;re still there for them as the partner/trusted advisor of choice.</p> <p>I want to elaborate further:</p> <ul> <li>Of course, innovation and self-disruption in these “traditional” markets will continue to be critical – but the ability to bring together a whole portfolio in aggregate that is strong in many places to aggregate and simplify a customer’s life is critical going forward in these traditional “compressing” markets. Customers naturally want less partners, not more. I’ve heard Michael say “no one has ever shrunk themselves to success”. That statement has never been more true than when the core stability of the customers partner ecosystem is up for debate. </li> <li>I think that customers/analysts/press underestimate the existential pressure on even the biggest players in the infrastructure market (including us) – it’s not pretty, and it’s going to get crazier. While being “big” cannot substitute for innovation and value – this is NOT a good time to be big, shrinking, <strong><em>and</em></strong> not innovating – and a slave to the unnatural acts that public markets create. Today, our answer and go-forward is clear. That cannot be said generally. </li> </ul> <p><strong>Q:</strong> Do you think that while of course the huge enterprise estate of “packaged enterprise apps” (which supports the bulk of the existing IT infrastructure market) will remain for many, many moons – <b><i>that too is in the process of being disrupted? </i></b>In this case, do you agree that the major disruptive forces are SaaS and more and more new application models (Cloud Native Apps)… And do you think those forces will drive new application and infrastructure architectures – ones where open-source, containerized abstractions and rack-scale datacenter architectures will rule the roost – on and off premises?</p> <p><strong>A:</strong> If you answer YES, consider how we will be able to innovate and compete in these domains even better. Why?&#0160;&#0160; I’ll answer with my PoV:</p> <ul> <li>First - pushing the envelope on high-risk projects is hard in larger enterprises, because it requires a trade-off against short-term economic interests. We’ve been doing it in EMC with things like ECS, RexRay/Polly, ScaleIO, VxRack Neutrino, DSSD. Dell has been doing it with things like Boomi, FX2, Dell Open Networking OS10, with Project Triton. VMware has been doing it with things like the Photon Platform, NSX, VSAN.&#0160; Pivotal is doing it in the whole application domain. In each of these cases, I’m SURE there have been lots of internal debates about “prioritization” and “relative revenue” and “near term”. This is ALWAYS there – after all, we’re all working to run businesses. BUT – in public companies whose existing portfolio is under pressure, these start to lead to <strong>very</strong> short term trade-offs.&#0160; We don’t have a lack of R&amp;D budget – and being private means we can weigh the mid to longer term more appropriately. </li> <li>Second – there is NO question that the infrastructure stacks for these new worlds are shifting to software stacks that are lightly coupled to x86 server stacks. This was a tricky thing in EMC (trust me, I’ve been at the center of this), because it messes with the business model. To play the BIG game (not the startup game), you need to have a very efficient, VERY awesome x86 server innovation machine and as importantly GREAT supply chain. Enterprises of all sizes are dwarfed by the hyper-scale players – and cannot sustain their ODM-based, low-level hardware engineered supply chain. They want low-cost to be sure – but they want quality, support, sparing, and more.&#0160;&#0160; While they don’t want hardware dependencies (NO!!!) they DO want turnkey systems and offers.&#0160;&#0160; They don’t have the time or the disposition to waste time trying to tune/engineer at this low (boring?) level.&#0160;&#0160; It’s not sexy, but it’s important. </li> <li>Third – we have the software IP. We have it directly in EMC (check out what you can find at EMC{code} here – and that’s just a start), in VMware, in Pivotal, and in Dell. And because customers want choice, they want open (and no one has a monopoly on innovation) we have it in the Apache Hadoop, OpenStack, and container ecosystems.&#0160; A weird factoid – look at Stackalytics.com and look up <a href="http://stackalytics.com/?module=cinder-group">Cinder contributions</a> in Newton – together Dell/EMC are second only to “Other”, beating Redhat, Mirantis and HPE – what!!!!&#0160; We have that Software IP organically, but also via incredible technology alliances with Microsoft, with SAP and with others. </li> </ul> <p><strong>Q:</strong> Do you think that Dell/EMC, VMware and Pivotal will need to work even more closely together as customer want more opinionated answers, more “outcome” focused answers – while still partnering in open ecosystems because customers also want flexibility and choice?</p> <p><strong>A:</strong> If you answer YES, then it’s time for the structural changes and a strong new leader at the top in Michael Dell. I love how the former EMC “Federation” recognized the fundamental need for VMware and Pivotal to have a high degree of autonomy. That said – customers are clearly signaling that they are willing to trade of “optionality” for “outcome” through stacks that are more tightly integrated and hardened. After all, when you pick SaaS, it’s totally turnkey, but the full stack is closed. When one picks a Public Cloud IaaS, you don’t get to pick ingredients. More and more customers are telling me clearly: “I want things that are more turnkey around my standards” <strong><em>and the success of VxRail is an example.</em></strong> Michael is pretty clear in his mind: open always, but when customer wants our stack – NAIL IT. We drive the same model with VxRack - and not just with VMware. Expect more down the path with Microsoft – where we will double-down on the on-premises stacks that Microsoft and Dell has been working on (CPS and other examples), and leading from the earliest days. And – moving further up – for Cloud Native Apps – it’s all about the developer. We will make the best opinonated PaaS (Cloud Foundry) even better – through code contribution as we have been doing, but also in turnkey stack offers like the Native Hybrid Cloud.</p> <p><strong>Q:</strong> Do you think that new economic consumption models (think full utility economic models) will be more prevalent – joining the well-understood enterprise IT purchasing model based on capex/ELAs?</p> <p><strong>A:</strong> If you answer YES, it’s time to operate as a private company – and embrace different business models that are otherwise simply not possible. It’s not a case (at least in my opinion) where the world will be all one way or another – capex, ELA, and full consumption models (and everything in between) will all be tools to use. BUT – today, almost all large scale IT businesses (software or hardware) are biased towards the traditional business model, and working hard to navigate this change. All you need to do is listen to an earnings call with Oracle, with Microsoft, with Cisco, with HP, with IBM – you name it. Each one is always peppered with the “how are you navigating the business model transition to annuity/consumption economic models?”&#0160; Why is it so challenging? As a public company, you are looking to each 90 day cycle. Annuity models can be great – but indubitably they mess with business in short time-frames. Furthermore – let’s be clear, our debt holders (being led by the founder) have a “success is about building something awesome” framing that is not common in the “go private” ecosystem :-)</p> <p>----</p> <p>So, there you have it. In black and white terms – no kool-aid terms. </p> <p>Axioms (things that hold true on their own) lead to corollaries, and those lead to implications. You may not like the implications – but if the logic holds (and the Socratic Method above is a short list), but they flow naturally from the Axioms – and therefore cannot be denied.</p> <ul> <li><u>Today</u>, Dell Technologies is <b>the world’s largest privately-controlled, integrated technology company</b>. This enables us to focus on our customers first and foremost and gives us the freedom to both invest in R&amp;D for the long term and to incubate high-growth businesses in emerging areas. Today, <b>Dell Technologies brings together strong capabilities in the fastest-growing areas of the industry </b>including hybrid cloud, software-defined data center, converged infrastructure, platform-as-a-service, data analytics, mobility and cybersecurity. Dell Technologies has recognized leadership in 20 Gartner Magic Quadrants and market share leader in key areas identified by IDC. Today, our unique structure enables us to be <b>agile and innovate </b>like a start-up while offering the trust, service and global scale of a large enterprise. </li> <li><u>Today</u>, The new company will help our customers <b>address their critical IT needs in the data center.</b> </li> <li><u>Today</u>, our customers now have <b>increased choice, simplified technology options and deployment routes, single support access </b>and <b>an even richer experience. </b></li> </ul> <p><b>So what does this mean for Converged and Hyper-Converged Infrastructure? </b></p> <p>An important passion for me is around Converged and Hyper-converged systems which help our customers get to better outcomes faster as well as a solution’s portfolio that includes the industry’s leading choices of multiple Cloud options, all in hybrid scenarios for customers who need VMware oriented Cloud stacks, Microsoft oriented Cloud stacks, Cloud Foundry oriented Cloud stacks and business critical cloud choices with Virtustream. </p> <p>Our CI portfolio will be <strong><u>unchanged</u></strong> – it’s a formula that is working. We’ll keep focused on refining, improving, and making deployment and update (RCM) easier and improving customer support. On the other hand, HCI will undergo a huge proverbial “hit the gas”.</p> <p><b>So what is the Blue Sky view? IMO - Converged and Hyper-Converged Infrastructures are foundational and underpin the Next Industrial Revolution.</b></p> <p>Much like how the physical Infrastructure (roadways, rail systems, aero-dynamic innovations) powered the Industrial Revolution of the 19<sup>th</sup> century, we are standing at the cusp of the next industrial revolution where converged and hyper-converged become the de-facto standard for the modern data center…an adaptive, intelligent, super-fast, software-defined data center that is the backbone of ubiquitous connectivity driving the digital revolution of our era. </p> <p>Freeing people from the most mundane parts of infrastructure.&#0160;&#0160; Acceleration and simplification through standardization and software automation.&#0160;&#0160; Enabling developers to accelerate release cycles to injecting agility into an IT organization, cloud-native and cloud choice can be delivered through Converged Platforms. Getting fast, getting agile is all about focusing where things matter – and infrastructure is just too boring :-)&#0160; <strong><em>Let us take care of it.</em></strong> This is all about moving forward on the “Build” to “Buy” continuum for things that should be evaluated as a commodity. We’ve gotten there on CI/HCI, and we’re getting there on the Hybrid Cloud Platforms that run on them.</p> <p>Serving as one of the change agents and catalysts at Dell Technologies, we sit at the epicenter of this transformation. And yes, of course – there’s a TON of stuff (at the “Titans of Tech” session – not named by me! – a question from the audience had me spill some of the beans, which you can see <a href="https://www.vmworld.com/en/sessions/top-10-us-wed.html">here</a>) already in the pipeline as the next waves of innovation. </p> <p><b>Let’s face facts and speak frankly….</b></p> <p>Leaders in this transformation, many of whom are comprised of our customers, are increasingly thinking bigger picture. They are thinking about their business, the longer view, and what they do that is unique (hint<em>, it’s not about what server, network, storage, hypervisor you pick – and while have SOME differences at the infrastructure layer, you’re about as different as one elephant is to another – ergo, not that different</em>) They have started thinking about end user customers and what they care about. I’ve found that this is perhaps the most important quality in IT leadership today – forcing hard realizations, clear evaluations of what matters in a sea of change and uncertainty. Getting smart about where you build and integrate, and where you buy and consume.</p> <p><b>Recipe for Success: “Build” to “Buy” Continuum – and continuously “shifting right”</b></p> <p>In IT, customers have two broad choices that can lead to successful outcomes.</p> <p>They can either <b>build their own outcomes </b>by individually sourcing compute, networking, storage and software, or they can <b>buy their outcomes </b>through integrated solutions, and turnkey engineered systems and cloud platforms – on and off premises.</p> <p>I’m NOT just talking about CI/HCI here – the idea is broadly applicable. A common example are people building their own PaaS and picking container engines, libraries, runtimes, cluster managers, sets of microservices and hand assembling. The flip side of that example are customers who say “I bet my needs are 90% the same as my competitors… so rather than designing for the exception 10%, I’ll just focus in on value ABOVE the PaaS and pick and use the leading PaaS”.<a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb0933d2f9970d-pi"><img alt="clip_image002" border="0" height="328" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b7c8905d62970b-pi" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="clip_image002" width="700" /></a></p> <p>Build or Buy (which is not any single point but a continuum) is a debate each has a “stop” has a sweet spot depending on where the customer is in their digital transformation journey. I’ve been observing that with each passing day – people are moving more and more towards the “right” part of the diagram below (with the far right being Hybrid Cloud stacks which you consume as a platform).</p> <p><b>How can customers meet these two very different sets of needs?</b></p> <p>By embracing that they want choice, but only where it matters. Shifting to the right as much as possible is good, but this only works if they have the cajones to realize they are abrogating choice below that mark (that’s what results in speed, agility).</p> <p>If the customer chooses an operating model that applies to their specific workload needs, and check it constantly in the harsh light of reality – you end up with: 1) minimized variation of things that should be boring; 2) more stuff on the right, less on the left. </p> <p>That said - every customer has a unique set of issues that can’t be solved by a single solution. However partnering with the most trusted, reliable, industry leader helps our customers accelerate this journey towards buying infrastructure on demand, delivered on or off hybrid clouds. Choose their consumption models, choose your hybrid cloud stacks, we deliver the experience. </p> <p>The purpose of Dell EMC’s converged platforms is to help businesses accelerate their data center modernization efforts. We believe there are multiple technology pillars that will be the underpinnings of the modern data center (flash, cloud enabled systems, scale out architectures, software-defined infrastructure, all wrapped in protection and trust). Converged infrastructure helps make the adoption of these new technologies faster, simpler, more agile, more efficient, less risky and less costly – all of which is for a simple purpose: go faster, better, and focus your efforts where you are unique and different.</p> <p><strong>Let’s CONTINUTE to speak VERY frankly…</strong></p> <p>It won’t all be sunshine, rainbows and unicorns.&#0160;&#0160; There will be lots of change.&#0160; There will be challenges – both foreseen and unforeseen.&#0160;&#0160; </p> <p>I can say now, publicly – that here on day one, we are ridiculously organized, ridiculously organized and ready to GO.&#0160; The integration team has done amazing work to date – but this is the <strong>start.</strong></p> <p>It’s also important for us to be realists – <b><i>this will not be easy – but aspirational big moves never are</i></b>. We will be bringing together teams of people for the first time. We will have disparate systems and processes that need to be reconciled, and then integrated. We clearly will have things we can do differently, more efficiently together. There other things which clearly can be organized better as we come together. These are changes – some merely tweaks, some that are turns - that we will be working through over the coming months and into 2018.</p> <p>I think back and celebrate 12 years at EMC.&#0160;&#0160; To me, it’s always about the people, the learning, the friendships.&#0160; People are the “source” for culture.&#0160;&#0160; So many friends – and I’m excited about the adventure over the next few years with old friends and new.&#0160;&#0160; </p> <p>I’ve been fortunate and blessed.&#0160; I’ve travelled around the world, MANY, MANY times…&#0160;&#0160; And I can’t wait for more :-)</p> <p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb0933d2fd970d-pi"><img align="left" alt="image" border="0" height="250" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb0933d301970d-pi" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="333" /></a><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b7c8905d67970b-pi"><img align="left" alt="image" border="0" height="250" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301bb0933d305970d-pi" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="333" /></a></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b8d21a1a92970c-pi"><img alt="image" border="0" height="450" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b8d21a1a98970c-pi" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="600" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b8d21a1a9c970c-pi"><img alt="image" border="0" height="522" src="http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd2883301b8d21a1aa0970c-pi" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="700" /></a></p> <p><strong>Today is a big day</strong>. A huge THANK YOU to every customer, partner, and employee who was part of getting here. There are exciting times ahead – and I’m optimistic about what we can do, the realities that we and the industry as a whole face. Most of all I’m hopeful. Hopeful that in our own way, we can help humanity forward – we are at the intersection of human progress, technology, and a future which is pretty darn cool :-)</p> <p><strong>I’m excited to be on this journey with you!</strong></p>Chad Sakac2016-09-07T08:42:38-04:00